Illustrative photo (Source: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) – Solutions to accelerate land accumulation and experience in the process were the focus of a workshop held by the Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM) on November 22.
CIEM Director Nguyen Dinh Cung said it is time for Vietnam to promote land accumulation in order to restructure and reorganize agricultural production towards modern and smart production on larger scale.
He said many farmer households want to transfer the land use rights to others as they want to switch to other occupations with higher incomes, but the demand for land use rights is low due to many regulations limiting the scale of land and the land use duration.
The expert urged measures to facilitate land accumulation, first of all more flexibility in management of land use purposes. Taxation should be used instead of the current land limit, Cung said.
In connection with the transfer of land use rights, farmers must seek new livelihoods for incomes. Therefore, the development of occupations other than agricultural production must receive due attention during land accumulation, Cung said, adding that occupational training for farmers is also necessary.
Nguyen Huu Tho, Deputy Director in charge of the CIEM’s Rural Development Policy Department, said a survey in three northern provinces of Ha Nam, Thai Binh and Ninh Binh showed the average scale of land accumulation was 2 hectares. Land is accumulated through four main methods, which are farmers leasing land of each other, enterprises leasing land of farmers under direct contracts or through the local administration, and farmers leasing land through cooperatives.
Tho proposed giving more power in land management to provincial and district administrations, and abolishing the regulation on the time limit for agricultural land use.
He also called for allowing economic organisations and households directly involved in agricultural production to acquire land use rights for rice land on certain conditions.
Nguyen Van Vuong from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s Department for Crop Production said land accumulation at present mostly goes in the direction of establishing cooperatives based on the old style, which does not have much room for development.
He also called attention to the development of other sectors in rural areas such as industry, services and tourism to draw labour out of agriculture, thus facilitating the accumulation of land.-VNA
VNA
